a form of cognitive behavior therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder in adults. Based on emotional processing theory, it is a brief treatment, involving 9 to 12 sessions of 60 to 90 minutes each conducted once or twice weekly. The first two sessions are devoted to information gathering, explanation of treatment rationale, treatment planning, and breathing retraining. During the remaining sessions, clients relive their traumatic experiences by imagining them as vividly as possible and describing them aloud in the present tense (i.e., imaginal exposure), including their thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations at the time. These narratives are recorded, and clients are instructed to listen to the recordings as homework. They are also instructed to confront, as homework, situations and stimuli that trigger distressing memories and thoughts and thus have been avoided (i.e., in vivo exposure). The homework assignments and
imaginal exposure are reviewed in session: Clients discuss their emotions, cognitions, and other responses to the activity, while the therapist uses nondirective statements to validate and normalize the clients’ experiences and reactions. The exposure exercises are intended to teach clients that trauma memories are in fact not harmful and that they can cope with them; the in-session discussion seeks to help clients change their erroneous beliefs about the trauma and reevaluate their feelings about it. Ultimately, this method aims to habituate clients to the traumatic event so that it no longer evokes the excessive anxiety, fear, and other distressing emotions that it previously did. [developed in the 1980s by U.S. psychologist Edna B. Foa (1937– ) and colleagues]